Conley set to grow CTO office at Mercury Systems

By Marjorie Censer / October 19, 2020 at 1:16 PM

The chief technology office created last year at Mercury Systems now has three employees and is slated to grow, according to the company's chief technology officer.

William Conley, who previously was director for electronic warfare in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, joined Mercury last year in the newly established role.

"What I think the CTO office really brings is that ability to look at things that are not immediately adjacent, but two puzzle pieces away and really understand where we fit into the ecosystem," he told Inside Defense in an interview last week. "Fifteen months ago, it was an office of zero; we now are an office of three."

Conley said that as CTO, he's connected to all of the technologists within the company's businesses.

"In my opinion, the technology is so integral to the business . . . we want the technological expertise fully integrated and operated inside of a business," he said.

But his office's role is to look for the seams between businesses and "what's vulnerable to falling through the cracks."

Additionally, Conley said he can connect groups working on technologies relevant to each other and help business units see adjacencies they should be pursuing.

He said the office "will continue to grow."

"There's a diverse set of different kinds of expertise that we benefit from," Conley added, noting that it makes sense for employees specializing in cross-cutting technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to report to the CTO.

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